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读音 (dú yīn) — pronunciation (of a character or word, especially in reading context); literary reading of a Chinese character (vs. colloquial pronunciation)

Definition

The reading of a Chinese character or word, often used when contrasting a literary (文言) pronunciation with the modern spoken one. 发音 is the everyday 'pronunciation,' while 语音 leans toward 'phonetics / audio.'

noun
pronunciation (of a character or word, especially in reading context)literary reading of a Chinese character (vs. colloquial pronunciation)

Examples

  • 读音“”“”？
    Zhè ge zì de dú yīn shì "zhāng" hái shì "cháng"?
    Is the pronunciation of this character zhāng or cháng?
  • 读音。
    Wén yán wén lǐ hěn duō zì dōu yǒu liǎng zhǒng dú yīn.
    In classical Chinese, many characters have two readings.
  • 準读音。
    Lǎo shī ràng wǒ men chá yí xià zhè ge zì de biāo zhǔn dú yīn.
    The teacher asked us to look up the standard pronunciation of this character.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

读dúread
音yīnsound

读 means read, 音 means sound, so together they mean the sound used in reading.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 讀; 读 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
言言yánto say
Sound part声符shēngfú
𧶠
𧶠𧶠讀dú
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 讀 is made of 言 ('to say') and 𧶠 (giving the sound); this description is about 讀, not 读.

Open 读 →

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

音 adds a short stroke that seals the mouth-like part, showing a covered or muffled sound rather than speech.

Open 音 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 5Language

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